I

Clumsy meeting

     Right before the plane took off, a little girl of about ten years with short dark brown pigtails suddenly crashed into the first-class cabin. In her light speed hurry she managed to throw stewardess away, fly over an serving cart and fall facedown right on the already taken seat. Everything happened in a slow motion in her eyes but the truth is everything happened so fast that she couldn’t do anything other than submit to the laws of physics. She stood up and began to apologize on her rusty Korean.

 “Sil-lye-hamnida, Mianhamnida...I am truly sorry.” Panting heavily she continued to speak stuttering. “I, I was late and I got in the last minute and before I could get to my seat the pilot said that we are already taking off so I got panicked and....I’m really sorry, again. Please let me help you ahjuma!” The little girl talked so fast that she didn’t even realized that she switched from Korean to English. The little girl started towards flight attendant in order to help but she tripped on her backpack and found herself sprawled on the floor making even more mess than before. “Sorry” she whispered trying to hide herself behind her pigtails.

“Just, stop and give me your plane ticket, now!” The stewardess angrily requested. While some of the passengers laughed, and others looked at her with loathing for disturbing their first-class peace, the little girl got her green backpack, fished her ticket and without standing up she gave it to the scary older woman. The stewardess surprised when she saw the name on the ticket and with flustered face and a big smile, she bowed to the girl. “Mianhamnida miss. Everything is in order miss. Please, your seat is right next to that young gentleman over there.” The stewardess responded without taking her eyes of the girl who in return just bobbed her head, picked her backpack and herself up and left in search of her seat.

            However, she had no luck. She couldn’t see any young man. In the cabin, there were a few older women and even older men, just one young girl and herself. She walked down the row, back and forth, with her backpack on her shoulder, when suddenly a hand and a voice stopped her.

            “I believe that the stewardess told you to sit down next to me. Hurry, we are about to take off. ” The little girl turned around and faced the person that stopped her. She saw a cute teenage girl with a short boyish haircut whose bangs were falling in an almost black eyes. She was wearing an orange, oversized t-shirt, skinny jeans and bright blue sneakers. Around her neck just as blue headphones were hanging. A charming lopsided smile plastered across her face.

            “Oh, no miss, that ahjuma told me to sit beside some man. You are obviously a girl.“ The girl responded with soft yet confused smile. The teenager just smiled back with quite contagious laugh stating that stewardess probably, like most of the people, confused her with a boy, and that she should sit down quickly. With a confused look, she sat down, finding her eyes sizing up the teenager.

            “Well, that’s absurd, are they blind? With the constitution of your body, the absence of Adam’s apple and your voice should give them some explanation, don’t you think?“ The little girl was talking with s such maturity and observation that the teenager was taken aback. Suddenly the girl turned and gasped remembering that she crashed into that particular teenager when she not so elegantly entered the cabin. Immediately she started to apologize but the teenager stopped her:

            “Hey, relax, no harm done. Nobody is hurt.“ Teenager waved her hand answering on English.

            “Except maybe my pride” the little girl mumbled. Then she stated that she is thankful that she speaks English since she’s not good enough at Korean.

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